12.26.2011

Today's vintage children's book is The Happy Owls by Swiss Artist, Celestino Piatti. If I had to described Piatti's work I would have to use many terms like balanced compositions, great use of color, creative designs, good line work, appealing, etc., etc.,... just simply great illustrations. LOVE HIS WORK.

Piatti was a talented and prolific artist who wore many hats. Besides being a Graphic Artist, Illustrator, Painter, Book Designer and Poster Artist, he also did lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, linocuts, worked with ceramics and sculpted.

Owls were used repeatedly in Piatti's work. Of the owl Piatti once said "I have never been able to get this creature out of my mind, especially it's eyes. Nearly every picture I draw has an eye somewhere."

Piatti frequently used the four elements of water, earth, air and fire in his work. To represent these elements he used the fish, tiger, owl and sun.

The Happy Owls is a simple story with a strong moral. It's about seeing beauty in the world around us and being thankful for what we have. Perhaps this book wasn't written for children only?

Celestino Piatti lived from 1922-2007. In the 30 years that he worked for the DTV (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag) in Munich, he designed almost all of their book covers, over 6300 designs in all! Of the 500 posters Piatti did, 30 won "Best Swiss Poster of the Year." A much smaller part of his work, Piatti did nine children's books.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I am taking a winter break and will be back on January 2nd.

12.24.2011

Is there a more famous Christmas poem than Twas the Night BeforeChristmas? Not in my mind. Written by Clement C. Moore in 1823 , it has endured and become a beloved poem. Illustrated by countless artists since it was first penned, it would be difficult for me to choose a favorite, so I decided to do the poem in it's entirety with different illustrators.

I didn't realize when I started this how much time it would take. I'm looking at this as an ongoing project and hope to show it next year again, with improvements, modifications, etc. Here for your viewing pleasure is Twas theNight Before Christmas by different illustrators.

12.23.2011

I woke up this morning to find these lovely reindeer cookies my daughter made last night. She's home from college and got in the Christmas baking mode. (Yess!!) Knowing the people that live in this house, she left this note...

I think they are so cute. It's a peanut butter cookie shaped like a reindeer head.

Chocolate covered pretzels are the antlers with mini and regular size M&M's for eyes and nose.

I've been seeing these reindeer beers all over the place. I'm using this idea for my three daughter's boyfriends this Christmas.

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I love looking at the art in children's picture books and I hope that you do too. My blog focuses on the art and artists of vintage children's books, largely from the 1950's through 1980's. Please join me as we look at these treasures and the artists behind them.